Purus Jacamar
Galbalcyrhynchus purusianus
Distinctive dark jacamar with a heavy bill and short tail. Deep chocolate brown, with a pinkish bill and reddish skin around the eye. Sexes similar. Forages in pairs and groups in trees around marshes, including around the edges of oxbow lakes. Its call is a piercing whistled “PEER”; Paradise Jacamar has a similar but weaker call.
Identification
The Purus jacamar is 20 cm (7.9 in) long and weighs 50 g (1.8 oz). It is stouter than many jacamars, and has a more robust bill. It is almost entirely chestnut, with dark bronzy forehead, crown, wings, and tail. The juvenile is paler and its bill is shorter.
Taxonomy
The Purus jacamar shares genus Galbalcyrhynchus with the white-eared jacamar (G. leucotis). They were originally treated a separate species, then as conspecific ("chestnut jacamar"), but are now understood to be separate species. The Purus jacamar is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Galbalcyrhynchus purusianus
- Authority
- Goeldi, 1904
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Galbulidae
- Genus
- Galbalcyrhynchus
Range and habitat
The Purus jacamar is found in the upper Amazon Basin of eastern Peru, western Brazil, and northern Bolivia. In this humid region, it inhabits terra firme and várzea forest, both primary and secondary. It prefers edges such as along waterways and oxbow lakes.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Purus jacamar preys on insects, with Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) and Isoptera (termites) favored. It perches at mid- to upper canopy height singly or in small groups and sallies out to capture its prey.<p>The Purus jacamar has been documented excavating cavities in termite nests high in trees in Brazil and Peru. It is apparently a cooperative breeder, as the Peru cavity was excavated by six individuals and groups of up to six individuals have been noted singing together.<p>The Purus jacamar's vocalizations are essentially identical to those of white-eared jacamar. The song is a rising trill [1] and the calls "a series of loud 'peeeur' whistles and a sharp 'pee'” [2].
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Medium-sized woodpecker with bold black-and-white barring on back and a cream-colored belly. A patch of yellow on the lower belly can be difficult to see. Male has red crown and yellow nape. Female lacks red crown. Distinctive in range, but hybridizes with Red-crowned Woodpecker; hybrids best left unidentified. Found in open woodland, edges, and gardens.
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